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D J Hargreaves

Publications and source records attributed to D J Hargreaves.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Social categorization, self-esteem, and the estimated musical preferences of male adolescents.

The authors investigated the intergroup processes of male adolescents within the context of social identity theory (SIT; H. Tajfel, 1978; H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1979). The participants were English male adolescents (age = 14-15 years). They estimated in-group and out-group musical preferences and evaluated the in-group and out-group along a series of scales. The results showed in-group favoritism effects along the musical preference and evaluative dimensions. The participants reported greater liking for the in-group. Compared with the out-group, they associated the in-group more with positively stereotyped music and less with negatively stereotyped music. Compared with the out-group, they rated the in-group as more fun, more masculine, more sporty, less boring, less snobbish, and less weird. The participants with lower levels of self-esteem showed greater differentiation between groups and greater derogation of the out-group. The results supported the predictions of SIT and demonstrated the applicability of SIT for the study of adolescent behavior.

Adolescent↗

The importance of music to adolescents.

AIMS: The study aims to determine the importance of music to adolescents in England, and investigates why they listen to and perform music. SAMPLE: A total of 2465 adolescents (1149 males; 1266 females; 50 participants did not state their sex) between 13 and 14 years of age who were attending Year 9 at one of 22 secondary schools in the North Staffordshire region of England. METHOD: A questionnaire asked participants (a) about their degree of involvement with musical activities; (b) to rate the importance of music relative to other activities; and (c) to rate the importance of several factors that might determine why they and other people of their age and sex might listen to/perform pop and classical music. RESULTS: Responses indicated that i) over 50% of respondents either played an instrument currently or had played regularly before giving up, and the sample listened to music for an average of 2.45 hours per day; ii) listening to music was preferred to other indoor activities but not to outdoor activities; iii) listening to/playing pop music has different perceived benefits to listening to/playing classical music; iv) responses to suggested reasons for listening to music could be grouped into three factors; and v) responses to suggested reasons for playing music could be grouped into four factors. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that music is important to adolescents, and that this is because it allows them to (a) portray an 'image' to the outside world and (b) satisfy their emotional needs.

Adolescent↗

Musical preferences during and after relaxation and exercise.

Effects of the listening context on responses to music largely have been neglected despite the prevalence of music listening in our everyday lives. This article reports 2 studies in which participants chose music of high or low arousal potential during (Experiment 1) or immediately after (Experiment 2) exercise or relaxation. In Experiment 1, participants preferred appropriate arousal-polarizing music over arousal-moderating music. In Experiment 2, participants preferred arousal-moderating music over arousal-polarizing music, such that their listening times contrasted clearly with those in the first study even though the same music and methods were used. Thus musical preferences interact with the listening situation, and participants' music selections represent an attempt to optimize their responses to that situation. When motivated to maintain a state of polarized arousal, listeners use music to achieve this; when they have no such goal, they use music to moderate arousal.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Liking, arousal potential, and the emotions expressed by music.

Previous research indicates that the specific emotions expressed by stimuli may be closely associated with their pleasing and arousing qualities, and this parallels psychomusicological research on the relationship between these two stimulus qualities. In light of this, the present research contends that the emotions expressed by musical stimuli are associated with their pleasing and arousing qualities. Sixty subjects rated 32 musical excerpts on 11-point scales representing the expression of eight specific emotions. Statistical analyses showed that these emotion ratings were predictable on the basis of 60 additional subjects' ratings of each excerpt in terms of 'liking' and 'arousal potential'. This indicates that ratings of liking and arousal potential are essentially similar to ratings of the specific emotions expressed by musical stimuli. These results are discussed in terms of the relationship between liking and arousal potential, and the implications that this may have for research on affective processes.

Adolescent↗